


Soulmate AU Oneshots

by MarvelMerlin



Series: soulmate AUs [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Colour soulmate, M/M, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, compasses to soulmate, nines has black chassis, soulmate colour handprints, will continue to tag as I add to it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26845030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarvelMerlin/pseuds/MarvelMerlin
Summary: A series of one shots based around different soulmate prompts.As always all of these are edited/beta-ed by Emrys (oswiniarty) to whom I owe my sanity to every time my laptop adds extra letters where they shouldn't be.
Relationships: Connor/Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: soulmate AUs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129547
Comments: 11
Kudos: 125





	1. Gold on black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Soulmates leave coloured marks on each others skin, platonic soulmates are one colour, romantic ones are another.

Both Nines and Gavin’s bodies bore many different coloured marks, though not as many as the other humans or androids around them. And they’d left marks on those they bore, but they were both exceedingly careful. Nines wore gloves every day, and Gavin’s hands were either on keyboards to do his work, or shoved deep in his pockets. 

No accidental touches. People had to earn their marks from them. 

They’d both been hurt too much to go about it any other way.

Tina’s lilac-purple handprint on the inside of Nines’ forearm, and the back of Gavin’s neck. 

She’d given hers to Gavin while they were training together, shoving him out of the way of paintballs meant to simulate actual bullets. Gavin’s deep green was on her hip, which had been fun to explain to Valerie. Tina had wanted to punch a bunch of drunk assholes, Gavin had reluctantly held her back, and her shirt happened to ride up.

She’d given hers to Nines when she’d noticed how much he’d begun to care for Gavin’s well-being. She’d pulled him into a hallway, away from the bullpen, her grip iron tight and immovable. She’d warned him, not mincing her words, that if Nines was going to care for Gavin at all, he’d better be prepared for it to be hard, and for Gavin to push him away. Nines had removed his glove, and placed a hand on her arm, swearing that he wouldn’t be going anywhere. His hand left behind a dark black handprint, one that matched the shade of his chassis perfectly.

Chris’ deep orange finger-marks were on Gavin’s upper arm. He’d stayed with Gavin in an ambulance after a case-gone-wrong. He’d stayed by Gavin’s side at the hospital room, as Gavin sat knocked out. Chris had placed his fingers against Gavin’s arm, trying to gage if he was cold or not, and was surprised when his fingers left behind the mark. He’d apologized to Gavin the moment he woke up, because he knew Gavin was particular about who he marked, and he didn’t know if that extended to who he  _ let _ mark him. 

Gavin had never felt more safe around Chris than when he apologized for something no one could control. Not even machines. But it had taken Chris a few more months to earn Gavin’s mark. But he did, when he took a bullet for Gavin. Gavin had ripped away the uniform pant leg, and managed to stem the flow of blood. Two deep green handprints surrounded the scar from the bullet wound on Chris’ leg.

The orange of Chris’ mark on Nines was on his back. Nines’ skin had been deactivated, focusing all of his energy to protecting his friends as they were cornered in a warehouse. Chris had placed his hand against Nines’ back, in an attempt to brace, as he stood behind the bullet-proof android and fired at the oncoming attackers. 

Nines’ black fingers were on Chris’ neck, just above his pulse. The gloves had gotten in the way, and Nines had needed to find a pulse while Gavin attempted to stem the flow from the gushing bullet wound in his leg. Chris had woken up with two new marks and had burst into tears. Both Gavin and Nines had panicked, but Chris just hugged both of them as tight as he could.

Of course, there were some marks that Nines had that Gavin didn’t, and vice versa.

Nines had Connor’s almost-white blue handprint on his left forearm, Connor having Nines’ black chassis handprint on his white forearm from when the RK800 had deviated Nines.

Gavin had a navy blue handprint on his shoulder from where Hank had clapped him on the shoulder in congratulations after he’d helped crack a case in the horrible heatwave of ‘35, when uniforms and dress codes had been done away with and even Gavin’s terror of marks couldn’t prevail over the need to cool off. Everyone was in t-shirts and tank tops. Gavin’s deep green handprints were on Hank’s back, hugging him after he’d graduated from the academy, and he’d been the first up to congratulate him. Wearing a brightly patterned tank top, that only Hank would own.

Gavin and Nines both knew the marks left on their friends were a different colour than the ones they would leave on their romantic soulmate. This was a well documented fact.

Another documented fact was Gavin’s soul marks. Their locations and colours were all logged in the DPD database, along with whom each mark belonged to.

Nines’ thirium pump ached at so many of Gavin’s marks. 

One, a soft pink that had once been noted as covering Gavin’s whole palm, was scratched out. It had belonged to his mother, who had died before the revolution, before Nines had even existed.

There was a mark denoted as belonging to Elijah Kamski, whom the DPD was never to contact about Gavin. Nines had learned, and inferred, that Gavin and his brother’s relationship had become strained after the revolution. Kamski was the founder, creator of androids, but he still believed they were created to serve. Gavin had broken from that strain of thinking less than two months after Detroit was evacuated, and he had been one of the first volunteers to return. He’d sought Connor out, and apologized. The android had, in shock, accepted his apology, and Hank had smiled on from a distance.

Gavin had no mark from his and his brother’s shared father, despite being split between his mother and father’s homes. 

Gavin had another, struck through. The Original Chloe unit had been disassembled by Kamski, following the revolution. Her soft, baby blue lone finger-mark had faded from it’s spot on Gavin’s cheek. Nines guessed that she had brushed a tear away after his and Kamski’s falling out. If Kamski had ever seen it, it would’ve been proof that his first ever android had deviated. 

Only deviated androids could leave soulmarks.

Gavin also knew the mapping of Nines’ marks, and his heart ached for a different reason.

The military android had so few, only four. He’d never put any stock behind  _ collecting _ soulmarks, they were physical reminders that these people would be with you until they died, and he’d only managed to have seven over the course of his life thus far. 

But he’d seen Nines, relegated to the outside of staff parties, his social programming still hazy, and his facial sculpt more angular. He’d seen Nines looking on at the colour-covered coworkers with envy. He’d seen him looking at Connor, with his 36 soulmarks, wistfully. 

Connor hadn’t collected his, but he’d been given so many. Markus, North, Josh, Simon, Tina, Chris, Hank, several of the androids he’d freed. Connor had so many friends, so many soulmates, he would never be alone. 

The only android soulmate Nines had was Connor, and he knew that one day, his marks would fade away as his friends died. And that one day, Connor’s inferior biocomponents and programming would force him to shut down permanently. An estimated 137 years before Nines. 

And Nines hated to be alone.

That was the first thing Gavin had learned about him. The android could mentally retreat to be alone at any time, but he hated to physically be alone.

Gavin had invited him to move in before they’d even started dating, because Nines had his own apartment, not wanting to intrude on anyone else. So when Gavin needed to move because his landlord was a dick who was kicking out his tenants to sell the building, he and Nines had gotten an apartment together. One room, with a walk in closet that Gavin wasn’t going to use. Nines had dragged a couch into it, for when he went into stasis. 

Gavin, who’d always struggled to fall asleep, slept so soundly the first night he’d have missed his alarm if Nines hadn’t woken him up. 

The first time Gavin kissed Nines his fists were balled in the android’s annoyingly perfect dress shirt, and Nines’ gloved hands had cupped Gavin’s cheeks, holding him close as the detective shoved the android against the wall.

Gavin had panicked, and tried to turn away but he was no match for the military android’s strength. And when Nines pulled him back in, kissing Gavin just as fiercely as he’d kissed the android, Gavin had been careful not to touch any of the android’s synthetic skin.

The second time Nines kissed Gavin was at the department Christmas party two days later, and both of them were annoyingly sober. Gavin had agreed to supervise Hank for Connor, who had slipped out halfway through the party when he’d received an urgent message from Jericho.

Gavin had just sent Hank home, dry as a bone, and proud of himself. Gavin was proud of him too, and told him so as he closed the door on a beaming Hank.

Hank’s taxi drove off, and Gavin shivered, and Nines’ expensively tailored and surprisingly warm suit jacket was around Gavin’s shoulders in an instant.

“I’m not a damsel in distress, you know. I do have a coat inside,” he’d said, conscious of Nines’ gloved hand lingering on his lower back.

“Are you planning on returning to...” Nines gestured to the loud ruckus inside. “That?”

Gavin groaned. “They’ve closed the bar, haven’t they?”

“About half an hour ago.”

Gavin grumbled. “I never get to have any fun.”

Nines’ eyes had sparkled, his hand at the base of Gavin’s spine slowly creeping around to Gavin’s hip, spinning the human to face him. “Is that so?”

Gavin had opened his mouth to reply, but found that the words weren’t there.

“The great Detective Reed, finally speechless. This is truly a wonderful moment.” Nines had teased, and Gavin had glared, but wrapped his own arms around Nines’ neck, careful not to touch him with his bare hands.

And Nines had backed him against a nearby lamppost, and kissed him feverishly. And Gavin savoured it. They began wearing gloves around the apartment, though Gavin was whisked away to Elijah’s home, for a tense week-long “bonding” time.

The third time Gavin kissed Nines was New Years, at their apartment, as the ball dropped. Gavin had climbed into Nines’ lap and called his name, pulling him out of stasis. Gavin slid his hands into Nines’ hair and kissed him as the countdown reached 0, and the people cheered about the new year.

A quick panicked message to Nines was met with a “Google it”. So he did. As 98% of his processors devoted themselves to kissing Gavin, 2% looked it up. What he found was the strange tradition of kissing someone they loved to ring in the New Year, it was supposed to bring the couple good luck. 

Nines’ thirium pump stuttered and Gavin broke away, catching his breath.

“It's infuriating you don’t need to breathe, you know that?”

“Gavin,” Nines’ voice was soft. “Do you truly care for me?”

Gavin frowned. “Of course I do, Nines. I don’t go around kissing anybody.”

Nines smiled brightly, pulling Gavin into a tight hug, burying his face in the human’s neck. “I care for you too, Gavin Reed.”

A year and a half into their relationship, they still wore gloves around each other. Even their friends were giving them strange looks, looks of concern.

But both of them were terrified. What if they touched and no mark appeared? What if they touched and a platonic mark appeared? There were too many uncertainties, and neither of them wanted to risk it.

Nines made Gavin feel safe, made him feel worthy of love, and made him feel loved. And Gavin made Nines more human, made him feel cherished and never treated him like the killing machine he was designed to be. Intimate touches behind layers of fabric were a small price to pay.

Until one case.

They had both been issued specialty weapons, ones that required a fingerprint or a chassis scan. Nines was still the only android with black chassis and it served as his fingerprint. Wearing one glove each, they shared a quick, careful kiss before they headed in.

Inside they were ambushed, and backed into a corner. Gavin was injured and Nines was covering his body.

_ Plate integrity 54% _

Nines minimized the display, bullets continuing to fire at him and him firing back. He kept spamming the DPD for reinforcements.

_ Plate integrity 38% _

Nines sent that report off to CyberLife, and minimized it, and their request that he come in for immediate repairs. He forwarded all extraneous power to critical functions.

_ Plate integrity 12% _

Nines looked over his shoulder, meeting Gavin’s gaze.

“I’m sorry, Gavin,” his voice robotic. Gavin’s eyes widened as he realized what was happening.

“Nines,  _ no. _ You are  _ not _ dying for me.” Gavin’s hand was on Nines’ back, grabbing the fabric he could find.

_ Plate integrity 1% _

“I love you, Gavin Reed.”

_ Plates shattered, contacting CyberLife _

_ Biocomponent #8456w compromised, see CyberLife technician immediately _

_ Shut down in 90 seconds _

Nines heard the doors bang open as reinforcements arrived, and he fell to his knees. Gavin scrambled to his side, cradling the android as it began to fall back.

“C’mon Nines, you’re a fucking  _ terminator _ . You can survive this.”

Nines reached up, cupping Gavin’s cheek and brushing away a tear. “Gav-in. I-”

_ Shut down in 60 seconds _

Gavin placed his hand over the android’s, his synthetic skin peeling back to reveal the black chassis underneath. 

“Don’t, put all your processors into  _ surviving _ this, tin can.”

Connor was on his knees beside them, tearing open Nines’ shirt and chest, reconnecting wires and assessing the damage further, his eyes flicking between his work, Nines and Gavin. 

_ Stabilized. Entering precautionary stasis _

Nines’ eyes drifted shut, his LED spinning from stuttering red to yellow, then to solid blue.

“Connor?” Gavin’s voice was quiet, scared.

“He’s in stasis, but he’s stable,” the other android reassured and Gavin let out a grateful sob, pulling Nines into his arms. “But we should still get him to CyberLife for further assessment.”

Gavin stood up shakily, ignoring the pain in his shoulder exasperated by the heavy android in his arms. Gavin carried Nines to the waiting gurney, and climbed into the back of the ambulance, grabbing Nines’ hand.

As the ambulance took off towards CyberLife a paramedic checked his shoulder. The bullet had only grazed it, but it was a bad graze. The paramedic tried to get Gavin to go to a hospital, but Gavin just shook his head.

“I’m not leaving his side.” And that was that. 

The paramedic resolved to simply bandage his shoulder and issue strict orders that he should see a doctor as soon as possible.

When they arrived at CyberLife, Gavin pushed his way through prissy scientists, staying by  _ his _ android’s side. He stayed by Nines’ side while they stopped his thirium pump and replaced it and the regulator. He heard Nines’ heart stop and couldn’t breathe until they had started it again.

And Gavin made a call he swore he’d never make. 

Gavin is right there when Nines boots up again, coming partially out of stasis and performing all the tests the scientists ask, even though Gavin  _ knows _ how terrified Nines is of these people in their lab coats covered in thirium. He could see Nines’ initial panic in his eyes when they took him out of stasis completely. His eyes scanned the room, taking in the lab coats and the machines analyzing him and he saw Nines start to tense.

Gavin grabbed his hand, and he felt the cold chassis wrap around his hand. He’d never thought that Nines’ chassis would be  _ cold _ . 

Nines’ eyes focused on Gavin as he looked at the head scientist. “Do you need to run any more tests?”

“No, the RK900 is fully operational, and, unfortunately, still deviant. His data storage remained unharmed.” Nines categorized the voice as belonging to Elijah Kamski.

“His name is  _ Nines _ . And he is a person, just like me.”

A scientist brought Nines his cleaned and repaired clothes, and Gavin shooed the scientists out of the room, and stood outside the door, talking with his brother. Nines focused on the sound of Gavin’s voice as he dressed.

“Thank you, Elijah. For coming.” His voice was tight, uncomfortable, but sincere.

“I’ll always be here when you need me, Gavin.” A scoff. “Though, I suppose, I should get used to your soulmate being a deviant.”

“S-sorry, did you just call Nines my soulmate? Don’t roll your eyes at me, Elijah!”

“Gavin, have you looked in  _ any _ reflective surface in the last five hours? Have you looked at RK- sorry, Nines’ hand? You’ve got matching soulmarks, and they aren’t your usual green.” Elijah waved a hand, his palm coated in the familiar shade of green that denoted Gavin’s soulmark.

Nines turned over his hands, and there, on the back of his hand, against the pitch black of his chassis, was an imprint of Gavin’s hand. A bright, luminous gold, shining out of the darkness. Nines activated his synthetic skin, and watched the skin form  _ around _ the golden mark, just as bright against his pale, human skin.

Gavin turned to face Nines, and on his cheek was a handprint, Nines’ handprint. 

Nines let out a conscious sigh of relief he hadn’t realized he’d been holding back. And then a tidal wave of pure  _ joy _ hit him. 

Gavin Reed was his soulmate. His. And he was Gavin’s. 

And they had nothing to worry about. And they never had.

This time, when Gavin Reed kissed Nines, there were no gloves, there was no carefully held back hands. He could feel the android’s smooth, black chassis hands, and Nines could feel Gavin’s warm, human skin. 


	2. Steady On To You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: A compass on your forearm points towards your soulmate, with their exact coordinates sitting just under it. The compasses only appear when your soulmate is born.

Gavin Reed grew up without a compass. There wasn’t one when he was born, like every other kid, and it didn’t develop. At 25 he’d given up hope that it’d ever show up. His brother was the same, though. No compass, and it never developed. 

Their father had called them broken, deficient in some way. So, when Gavin had turned 18 and graduated from the DPD academy, he rented a crappy, two bedroom apartment where he and Elijah lived. Elijah founded CyberLife out of his crappy bedroom, with the cracks in the wall.

Gavin’s brother was a genius, and even if he didn’t get the science, Gavin was good with his hands. He’d fixed engines on the crappy beater cars he’d been driving Elijah to school in, he’d  _ built _ the bike he took to work now. So he helped as much as he could while Elijah built several, failed, prototypes. Then, they built Chloe. 

Then Chloe passed the Turing Test. And androids were being mass produced. Elijah asked Gavin if he wanted to retire, he was one of CyberLife’s first investors, he didn’t need to work anymore.

But working at the precinct, he didn’t feel like he was treated any differently. There were only three people at work who knew about Gavin and Elijah, and about Gavin’s non-existent compass.

Hank, Tina, and Chris. And none of them had given him shit about it. Even though now, Hank and Gavin were on tenser terms, he’d never gabbed about his brother or his missing compass.

In 2027, Elijah discovered something, while experimenting. An android he had been designing for a friend, one whom, like Gavin and Elijah, was compass-less, broke from its code. Gavin had gotten a call, his brother panicking. 

So Gavin had gone to him, and the machine had acted like a  _ person _ . It-  _ he _ was  _ thinking _ of his own opinions, was  _ feeling _ his own emotions. And when he’d interfaced with the Chloe that had been helping Elijah, she’d begun experiencing the same phenomena.

Gavin and Elijah had sat down with the two androids, and explained what the world thought of them, outside these walls. RK 200 had asked why he was created, and when he’d heard about his purpose, he’d asked if he could be reset, to forget emotions and feelings. This person needed a machine.

They’d done as he asked, and Elijah had given him to Carl Manfred, and told him what had happened, cautioning him that it may happen again.

The Chloe had loved the ability to feel, loved being able to think, but understood that she’d need to pretend to be a machine anywhere in public. So Elijah took her under his wing. Gavin and Elijah had both taken note of the fact that underneath her synthetic skin, against the Chloe’s white chassis, was a compass, spinning around.

Elijah cautioned Gavin, told him that he would be telling his board of directors. They couldn’t treat these beings like they were machines, and Gavin had agreed.

Until he saw the announcement in the news of Elijah’s retirement. When he’d asked, Elijah just shook his head.

“They want slaves, Gav. They don’t care what they  _ could _ be.” He’d taken a sip of his drink, and sighed. “You can’t tell anyone about this...  _ deviancy _ . Keep androids at a distance and spare yourself the heartache of knowing you can’t save them.”

So Gavin had. He’d never gotten an android, no matter how “useful” they were. He stared at the station androids with pity masked by contempt. And he’d never brought it up again. 

When Connor had shown up, marketed as the “deviant hunter”, Gavin had told Elijah, who had just smiled. CyberLife couldn’t keep them down forever. 

He’d tried to insert himself into as many cases surrounding deviants as he could physically handle. But he’d never managed to find any, or talk to any, before they died or escaped.

When the RK 200 they’d built for their friend was framed for attacking Carl’s son, they’d both visited him. They’d talked with him, and he’d explained that Markus, that was his name now, had deviated again.

Gavin watched with a strange sense of pride when Markus had hacked the news network to demand rights. He and Elijah saw the same thing, saw that the androids were waking up, and CyberLife couldn’t stop them.

He’d turned away from the news coverage of the protests when the cops, people he knew, fired at Markus. He knew he didn’t know this Markus, but the blood was still blood, even if it was blue. The bodies were still bodies, even if they were made of metal and plastic.

After that he’d tried to stay out of it all.

Until November 8, when Hank had cornered Gavin.

“I need to know if you know anything about deviancy that you aren’t telling me.”

Gavin had crossed his arms, defensively. “I don’t know anything, Hank. Elijah’s the big brain, not me.”

“Then get me a meeting with the rich asshole.”

So Gavin had obliged. And watched on from his office as Elijah had Connor point a gun at the original Chloe.

She was deviant, all of the androids in his house were deviant now. But she played her part perfectly.

Gavin hoped to whatever higher beings there may be that Elijah had analyzed Connor correctly.

And then the deviant hunter had handed the gun back. And Elijah helped Chloe stand back up, and Connor and Hank left.

Gavin went back to the precinct, trying to corner Connor, talk to him. But instead, he was his usual  _ charming _ self, and he’d wound up knocked out, on his ass. 

When the revolution began, when the androids were being rounded up, Elijah insisted Gavin leave his apartment and come to his mansion on the outskirts of the city. So they’d both sat in the kitchen, doors barred shut so no one would take the Chloes, and watched as the standoff came to an end.

On November 11, Gavin woke up at noon, and there was, for the first time in his life, a compass on his forearm. It was moving slightly, and the coordinates underneath it changed slightly. 

Gavin and Elijah scoured books, while the Chloes used their processing powers to find out what could have prompted it to show up  _ now _ , more than 36 years after it was supposed to.

Elijah frowned and dropped the book he was reading on the table. “Gav, your soulmate, they’re an android.”

Gavin frowned, looking at his brother. “It's possible- why are you so sure?”

“Think about it. The compasses only show up when the soulmate  _ exists _ . The souls of the androids don’t awaken until they’re deviated. They’re deviating all the androids left in the city.”

Gavin leaned back in his chair, rubbing his face. “My soulmate is an android.”

“I mean, they’re one out of who knows how many thousands in the city,” Elijah grinned. “How hard can it be?”

One of the Chloes fielded a call for Gavin from Hank. He was trying to get as many of the cops he trusted back into the city limits; humans weren’t listening to androids, and some were still stubbornly staying behind.

So, Gavin returned to work, a Chloe model escorting him to the precinct at Elijah’s insistence. 

“Since when does Elijah Kamski rent out his experiments to cops?” Gavin turned towards Connor. The former deviant hunter was still in his CyberLife jacket, though all android markers on it had been removed.

Hank was picking his way across some rubble towards them. “Since Detroit became a veritable war zone, and he doesn’t want his brother to wind up dead.”

“You won’t find him listed in any database, Elijah doesn’t trust them,” Gavin said as Connor frowned. “Won’t find any trail of us being related. Unless you check my bank account.”

Connor almost seemed offended. “I would never.”

Gavin raised his hands. “Was a joke, Connor. I was, technically, one of CyberLife’s first investors, so I have a  _ lot _ more money than I know what to do with.”

Connor frowned. “Why are you here, Detective Reed?”

“I understand deviants better than you’d ever give me credit for, Connor. Elijah’s surrounded himself with them.”

Hank crossed his arms. “Kamski said he didn’t know anything about deviancy.”

Gavin shrugged, his hands still in his pockets. “He doesn’t, and neither do I. I’m not the smart one.” 

Connor muttered something that sounded like “Clearly.” Gavin let it go, and explained. Markus’ original deviation in 2027 and his choice to be reset. How the Chloe Connor had pointed a gun at, at Elijah’s insistence, was devient. 

“Thank you, for not shooting her, by the way.”

Connor frowned. “Kamski’s insane.”

A new voice, similar to Connor’s but less human, spoke from the entrance. “You don’t get the advent of an entirely new sentient species without being insane.”

Gavin looked at the new voice, an android still with his LED. He looked almost exactly like Connor, but harder edged. He looked, and sounded, less human than Connor.

“RK900,” the android introduced himself. 

“Gavin Reed.” He looked around the smashed precinct. “Technically Detective Gavin Reed, but I’m not sure the DPD  _ exists _ anymore.”

“You’ve got the badge and the gun, humans will listen to us, and androids will, hopefully, listen to them.” Hank shrugged. “That's the hope, anyway.”

“Do we have somewhere we’re working out of?” Gavin asked, looking around. “Or is this incredibly fucked up precinct it?”

The harsher Connor nodded. “I agree with Detective Reed, this is hardly an ideal location.”

Connor shrugged. “There isn’t anywhere in the city much better off. Jericho’s taken up residence in CyberLife Tower. They’re trying to work through repairing as many androids as they can, though, so they’re pretty busy.”

“Could we operate out of the main floor? If it's just us for now, we won’t be taking up that much space.” Gavin suggested, and waved Chloe over. 

“I’ll ask.” Connor’s LED spun yellow.

“Do you suppose Kamski could spare a Chloe or two to help out?” Hank asked.

Gavin frowned. “They’re all their own people, Hank. Elijah just protects them, and houses them. They make their own choices.” He placed a hand on Chloe’s shoulder.

“I’d be happy to help however I can.” She smiled kindly. 

“Markus says there's a handful of offices on the main floor of CyberLife Tower no one is using. He says we’re welcome to use them.”

So the small group, the foundation of the  _ new _ Detroit law enforcement, made their way to the tower. The fancy gate had been kept open, and the security gates were manned by androids. Chloe, RK900, and Connor’s LEDs all spun yellow at the same time, and the security androids let them pass through without slowing their car.

A blonde android met them outside the building. 

“My name is Simon, welcome to New Jericho. I must ask you all to leave any external, non-attached weapons with the front desk.” He gestured to the secure box waiting. 

Gavin obliged, and nodded for Chloe to do the same when she hesitated.

Hank raised an eyebrow at the number of weapons Chloe and Gavin placed in the box. “What, were you preparing to fight the army or something?” 

“When we originally collected them? Yes. Yes we were.”

“We have a bit of a stockpile,” Chloe admitted. 

Connor’s arms were crossed and his LED was spinning yellow, his eyes trained on Gavin. “At the very least we won’t have to deal with  _ finding _ weapons.”

Simon held open the door to a series of interconnected offices, a few very rudimentary computers set up on the desks. “We’ve given you as much computer equipment as we can spare, unfortunately CyberLife locked us out of large portions of the building, and no board members are answering our calls.”

Gavin flicked the light on. “Euginia.”

“I’m... sorry?” Simon questioned.

“Should over-ride at least a few of their locks. E-U-G-I-N-I-A.”

Hank shook his head, smiling, and Connor cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind, Simon, we’d like to get to work.”

Simon nodded. “Of course, good to see you again Connor.”

The door swung shut behind him, and RK900 looked at him with confusion. 

“Euginia?”

“My password for CyberLife. And Elijah’s.” Gavin pointed a finger to Chloe. “Don’t lecture us about password safety again.”

RK900 almost smiled. “You are quite a strange person, Detective Reed.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment... Have you got a name besides RK900?”

“Never occurred to CyberLife to give me one. If there is something you’d rather call me-”

“We’ll figure out something.” Hank pointed to the androids. “You three figure out how to make this look more official, figure out procedures and such. Gavin and I will work on the computers.”

They split into groups, and Gavin and Hank carried the computers into two of the offices. 

“Tina and Chris are both waiting till it's safer. Fowler’s been reassigned to NYPD, pretty much all the big bosses are done with Detroit.”

Gavin ripped some flyer about an android clearance event off the wall and lit it on fire as he tossed it out the window. “And the FBI fucker?”

“We don’t actually know. Probably off doing fuck knows what.”

Gavin sat in a chair, sticking his feet up on the desk. “So how exactly is this gonna work? Four cops covering the  _ entire city _ until  _ maybe _ Chris and Tina think it's safe enough to come back, then it's  _ maybe _ six.”

“We try. We can’t exactly revert back to the good ol’ DPD, no one trusts them anymore. Between Capitol Park, Woodward, and the camps, the uniform is as good as trash-”

“Always was,” Gavin interrupted, and when Hank scowled at him he put his hands up. “You’re a millennial, Hank. You know as well as I do how corrupt the system was. Still is, actually. Might as well start from scratch with law enforcement. Same as everywhere else.”

“We need laws to enforce first.”

“Did you not listen to Markus’ speech?” Hank shook his head and Gavin sighed. “Crimes against androids be prosecuted and pursued the same as they are for humans. We aren’t reinventing the wheel, Hank. Add android hate crimes, and we’re good to go. Unless and until we’re told otherwise.”

“We don’t exactly have the numbers to handle a lot.”

“Actually,” Connor was leaning in the doorway. “Several of the police assistant androids have expressed interest in continuing to work as they were before.”

Hank looked to Connor. “So what? They’d be our beat cops? The emergency response?”

RK900 answered, “They  _ are _ better equipped than humans are. Their scanning abilities would allow for instant evaluation if someone were to be experiencing a mental health crisis. If someone is in need of medical assistance, they are all extensively programmed to provide it.”

Gavin shrugged. “They were already the beat cops, now they just don’t have to wear the shitty navy colour.”

“We’re changing the uniform now?”

Gavin’s eyes drifted to Connor’s jacket, and the stark white version RK900 was wearing. “CyberLife has access to programmable clothing, it's what the android uniforms were made from. We could repurpose it all.”

“That's... Actually a good idea, Detective.”

“I’m not just a pretty face, Connor,” Gavin teased and Connor smiled.

“Okay, so we get all police-related 911 calls routed here, we don’t need sirens for cars so long as a hive-mind android is in the car and able to hold people out of the way.” Hank smiled. “This shit might actually work.”

And they worked. It took two weeks to catalogue the office, set everything up, and contact the androids that expressed interest in working with the new law enforcement. Black jackets were issued to all of them, displaying their name on the front panel, and “Jericho-Detroit Law Enforcement” on the back, with a larger panel bearing the symbol of Jericho just underneath the words. Gavin and Hank wore theirs as well, it was a new use for the old uniforms.

And Gavin still insisted on wearing a hoodie underneath it. He had a personal style to uphold.

About a week into their work, Elijah rode in with Chloe and Gavin, and he was escorted to the elevator. He came back down hours later, smiling the smile that meant he’d either built or fixed something. His brother was only ever truly happy tinkering.

He continued to ride in with them, or just slept at the tower. Whatever he was doing, he hadn’t told Gavin, and Gavin didn’t ask. But it made him happy.

Gavin had taken to calling RK900 Nines, and the android hadn’t objected. He learned that Nines had been designed as a military android, how he was bulletproof and indestructible. 

And how he’d woken up with a green arrow and glowing green coordinates on the chassis of his arm. How it was hidden by his synthetic skin. 

Gavin found himself sharing things too, as they walked around the city, drove between crime scenes and interviews and the office.

Found himself sharing how the thirium pump, and the tubing that cycled it through android bodies was his idea, how Elijah overcomplicated problems when the solution was old tech, like gas lines in cars, and not new stuff. Gavin found himself sharing what it was like to grow up without a compass, how he was  _ certain _ he and Elijah were only as close as they were because they’d both been without one their whole lives. 

Nines was the first person Gavin told about the fact that his compass had shown up the day after the successful revolution. 

Nines told Gavin that he wasn’t sure he  _ had _ a soul, but that this compass must mean otherwise. How he was terrified to try and find his soulmate because he didn’t feel complete for them. He’d been designed to be a military android, he didn’t have the capability for anything sexual, and he didn’t  _ desire _ it, either. How he’d thought it was something about his deviation, that maybe he wasn’t completely deviant, but how Connor’s scan had proven he was. He didn’t feel like anything was  _ missing _ , it just wasn’t  _ there _ . It never had been.

Gavin told Nines about Carl Manfred, taking both Elijah and himself under his wing, because he was like them, with no compass. How Carl was the reason he thought he even had a chance at being happy.

Nines told Gavin about the tests he wasn’t supposed to remember. The endless rounds of bullets fired into him, over and over again. How they tore him apart to see how long it would take to put himself back together. How even though he didn’t feel the pain, feel  _ any _ pain, the memories terrified him. How he was glad that he didn’t have dreams like humans, that he could control his stasis’ image.

Gavin told Nines about holing up in Elijah’s home, weapons illegally gathered and not returned to the DPD so they could protect their family of Chloes. How every rustle of a branch scared them shitless. How Gavin and Elijah slept and the Chloes went into stasis in the living room, terrified that they’d wake up and the others wouldn’t be there.

Nines knew Gavin better than anyone else by the end of the first month, and he hoped he knew the android just as well. 

Gavin and Nines kept two coffee machines in their shared office, one that would make any number of warm human drinks, and one that simply warmed thirium. It was something Gavin had tried for one witness.

She’d been a YK500 model, a child. And she’d been attacked by some humans who continued to try and force androids out. They called themselves the Liberators, and they were bad news.

The child had been frightened, and cold. So Gavin had taken the thirium they often gave to android witnesses and gently warmed it up.

“Nines, can you come here for a minute?” He’d asked over the earpiece that fed into Nines’ HUD. 

The android met him in the small kitchen, where Gavin had placed a mug full of thirium in softly simmering water. “What is it, Detective Reed?”

“At the station we’d give the kids hot chocolate, I wanted to see if warm thirium would be any more comforting, but I can’t exactly check it for temperature myself.”

The android had stuck a sensor covered finger in the mug and nodded. “73 degrees celsius. It should be perfect.”

Gavin removed the mug and handed it to the shivering child with a kind smile. And it had made a difference. The child warmed up, and the thirium replenished her energy.

So they’d bought a second coffee maker, cleaned it, and kept a supply of warm thirium.

Other androids working in New Jericho would pop in every once and a while for some, and while both Nines and Gavin were more than happy to give them some, neither of them understood why they weren’t just getting a coffee maker for themselves.

About six months in the new law enforcement had earned the trust of humans and androids. Tina and Valerie had moved back into the city, though Chris had decided to stay out, for the sake of his family’s peace of mind. They had begun training a few more humans and androids together, and they’d taken over the whole main floor of New Jericho, with Markus’ enthusiastic permission. 

And Gavin had realized that his feelings for his partner weren’t just platonic. 

When Nines stepped into his space, Gavin let him, and felt his heart skin a beat. 

When Nines looked up at him from whatever file they’d been working on with his eyes alight and LED rapidly spinning yellow, he always smiled. 

When Nines mimicked Connor’s softer voice to talk to witnesses, Gavin’s heart lurched because this man was using valuable processing power to make these witnesses feel  _ safe _ . He knew it was uncomfortable for him to force his voice modulator to mimic Connor’s speech. Yet without fail, if he felt someone was scared, worried, concerned, or just needed to be put at ease, he would place himself in discomfort for the sake of a stranger.

When Nines’ back was pressed against his chest as they continued to try to find the Liberators, Gavin felt safer than he ever had. He had a terminator watching his back.

Gavin had caught Nines staring at the compass on Gavin’s arm once when they were working late, Gavin’s sleeves rolled up. Gavin had glanced at the compass, not moving at all, and tugged down his sleeve, self-conscious.

A year and a half on, and they finally had a solid lead on the Liberators, and enough man power that they could finally  _ do _ something about them.

And then Nines disappeared. 

And Gavin freaked the fuck out. Because taped to the screen was a printed note:

_ “Good luck finding your bot-toy” _

Gavin had punched the wall. Repeatedly.

And then he’d cried.

And then he’d called Elijah and Connor. 

“Nines is missing. Just as we were about to move on the Liberators.” Gavin handed the note to Connor. “Can you contact or locate him?”

Connor nodded and closed his eyes, his LED spinning yellow.

“Why am I here?” Elijah asked.

“Every android we’ve found has been.... Badly damaged, if they survived. Nines may be the most advanced, and strongest android CyberLife ever made, but that doesn’t mean they won’t  _ try _ .” Gavin looked at Elijah when he grabbed his brother’s shaking hands. “I don’t trust anyone else to fix him.”

Elijah nodded. “I’ll get my lab ready.”

“The one at the house, please. And no lab coat, no white sterile-ness. He hates it. It terrifies him.” Elijah nodded and took off to gather what he thought he may need and bring it home.

Connor’s eyes opened and focused on Gavin. “His locator is off, he couldn’t turn it back on either, but he said you’re able to find him.”

Gavin shook his head. “There are  _ seven _ locations, Connor. Spread out over the city and the metro area. I have no-” Connor grabbed his arm. “Connor what the-” 

Connor shoved up Gavin’s sleeve, exposing the compass. “Android compasses show up for me the same way faded thirium does. His has  _ always _ pointed to you.” He tapped the steady needle of the inked compass on his skin. 

Gavin’s brain was spirling. Nines had known. And he hadn’t said anything.  _ When _ had he known? Had he  _ always _ known? Was he supposed to  _ say something before _ ?  _ What the fuck was he supposed to do about this? _

Connor smacked him upside the head, just hard enough that it snapped Gavin out of his spiral. “We don’t have time for you to have some existential freak out. Nines needs you.”

Gavin grabbed his jacket and left the office, grabbing as much backup as he could. He got in the car, looked down at his arm, punched the coordinates into the display, and the car took off, the backup following.

He had no idea how long Nines had been missing for. It could've been one hour, it could've been fourteen. 

“If any of them have even  _ thought _ about hurting him, I’m going to kill them,” Gavin muttered to Tina, who was sitting next to him.

“He’s a terminator, Gavin. He’ll be fine.”

“You don’t get it, T. He  _ remembers _ every test CyberLife performed on him. Whatever they’re gonna do to him...” Gavin trailed off and focused on the road ahead, clenching his fists at his side.

They arrived at a dark warehouse, and filed out of their cars. Tina knocked on the door while Gavin found another entrance.

“Jericho-Detroit Law Enforcement, make yourselves known!” She shouted as an android next to him hacked into the code box, catching the door as it opened.

Gavin stepped inside, followed by half a dozen androids, guns drawn. They swept through the building, Gavin navigating by the compass on his arm. 

They reached the centre, and Gavin’s heart stopped. Chains were wrapped around the black chassis of Nines’ wrists and ankles, holding him in place, and his chest was partially ripped open. The soft glow of his thirium pump illuminating his closed eyes.

His LED was solid red, it blinked, once, twice, then solidified again.

Nines’ voice was completely robotic, all processors going towards the singular goal of keeping him alive. “You will not win.”

Laughter. A voice from somewhere around Nines. “If you’re the  _ best _ CyberLife ever made, ever  _ will _ make, I think we got a pretty good chance.”

Gavin nodded and the lights flashed on. 

“JDLE hands up!” Multiple voices, human and android, shouted as guns were aimed at the group of ten men. One of them held up a thirium pump regulator.

_ Nines’ _ regulator.

“You wouldn’t wanna break your fancy toy now would ya?”

Gavin saw red, and fired. He hit the man’s shoulder and caught the regulator as it slipped from his grasp, pushing past him to Nines.

Gavin shoved his soulmate’s regulator back into place and his LED slowly spun from red to yellow to blue. Gavin reconnected several wires, and shut Nines’ chest before unchaining his ankles and then his wrists.

The second he was free, Gavin pulled Nines close, holding onto the android’s cold, black chassis body as tight as he could.

“You asshole," he choked out, tears streaming down his face. 

The android’s arms wrapped around Gavin, his hands gripping Gavin’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, how am I the asshole here?”

“You couldn’t’ve just  _ said _ something. Like a  _ normal person _ . You just had to wait till you got  _ kidnapped _ .” Gavin’s face was buried in the android’s neck.

Nines was quiet for a few moments, his skin reactivating. “I thought you knew.” His voice was quiet, quieter than Gavin had ever heard it before. And broken. “I thought you knew and you just... didn’t want me.”

Gavin made a noise that was part laugh, part sob, and all frustration, as he pulled back and held the android’s face in his hands. “I want you, Nines. I’m just not smart enough to figure this compass shit out on my own.”

The android’s LED flickered from yellow to red to yellow. “You... You want me? Even though I’m not...  _ Everything _ ?”

“You’re everything to me, jackass. You have been since the day I met you.”

Nines smiled, and Gavin shook his head and pressed his lips to Nines’,  _ finally _ kissing him. Something Gavin hadn’t even realized he’d been wanting to do this long.

Nines rested his forehead against Gavin’s. “Gavin, I need repairs.” He knew Nines exactly as well as he thought he did. The android’s hands were trembling slightly against Gavin’s shoulders, his LED was red, not from the immediate theta of shutdown, but from  _ fear _ .

“Elijah’s on standby, at his house. Nothing white in sight. All greys and wood browns.” He brushed a stray piece of hair back into place on his partner’s head. “And no lab coats or other scientists. Just my brother and the Chloes. Will that be okay?”

Nines visibly relaxed as he nodded, and Gavin looked at the android’s rather beaten legs.

Gavin glared in the direction of the detainees. “I’m gonna fucking kill them.” 

Nines’ thumbs were brushing stray tears off his cheeks. “We have them now. Everything will be  _ okay, _ Gavin.”

Gavin turned back to his soulmate, shrugging off both his jacket and hoodie and wrapping them around him. “Can you walk?”

Nines slid his arms through the too-long hoodie, apparently it was  _ fashionable _ according to Tina. Right now he was just glad it would be enough to cover Nines with his synthetic skin. Gavin zipped it up and tapped the jacket, and the words changed from Gavin’s name to Nines’.

“I don’t think so, diagnostics are... undecided.”

Gavin waved over two androids, whose LEDs spun yellow while they communicated with Nines. Nines threw an arm over each of their shoulders and they helped him to a car, Gavin sliding in the other side.

When they arrived at Elijah’s, Gavin helped him. And paid attention to what Elijah was doing, so he’d be able to do repairs for Nines in the future. Elijah kept Nines conscious the whole time, using analytical language, but not scientific, and explained everything he was going to do before he did it.

Three hours later Elijah declared that Nines’ self-repair functions would be able to handle the rest, but if he experienced any discomfort to please let him know. The Chloes helped Nines to an actual bed, and brought him a set of cozy fleece pajamas covered in cartoon, boxy robots.

Gavin laughed when he saw the pattern on his resting soulmate.

“Irony or your brother’s sense of humour?” Nines asked as Gavin lay down next to him, wrapping his arm around the human.

“All of the above, plus the Chloes.” Gavin reached out and brushed his fingers against where the compass sat on Nines’ chassis.

Pressing a gentle kiss to Gavin’s head, Nines deactivated the skin on his arm. There, against the inky plastic of his chassis, was a solid green arrow pointing directly to Gavin. Gavin gently traced an outline of the arrow with his finger.

“Gavin, are you  _ sure _ I’m enough? I can’t-”

“Nines, you are more than I deserve. In every way.” Gavin placed his hand on his partner’s jaw. “I should’ve said something the first time you mentioned being asexual, but I didn’t think it was my place to. It doesn’t  _ matter _ to me. You are my soulmate, and I adore you. Even if you weren’t my soulmate, if we were both compass-less, it  _ still _ wouldn’t matter. I love you.  _ All _ of you.”

Nines turned his head slightly, pressing a kiss to Gavin’s open palm. “You are too, Gavin. More than enough. More than I hoped for when Connor explained the compass. I love you, Gavin Reed.” He grinned, a sly, shit-eating grin that made Gavin’s heart skip a beat. Which, given that the android’s grin widened, Gavin assumed Nines had sensed. “Even if you aren’t the smartest sometimes.”

Gavin rolled his eyes, and smacked Nines’ chest before settling in against his partner, against his soulmate.

Gavin Reed spent 36 years of his life compass-less, and when it showed up one morning, the military, top-of-the-line advanced android was the  _ last _ thing he’d expected to be on the other end of the compass. But, he was exactly what Gavin wanted, what he needed, and what he loved. And Nines, who had never spent a conscious moment without his compass, felt the fear, that Gavin didn’t want him because he  _ was _ broken, fade away. He removed the fictionalized version of Gavin from his zen garden, instead content to devote a few hundred of his processors in stasis to monitor his sleeping soulmate.


	3. And Then There Were Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Colour appears in your world when you meet your soulmate.

Gavin had lived his life in black and white until Connor. Specifically until Connor arrived back at the DPD after deviating during the final days of the revolution.

But only half the colours appeared for both of them. 

Gavin could see the bottomless brown of Connor’s eyes, with its flecks of gold and orange. Some perfectly engineered pattern by cyberlife repeating in a circle around his pupil. He could see the yellow of Connor’s LED as he processed and catalogued the newly discovered colours. He could see the bright green of the leaves.

But things he knew were  _ blue _ remained the same. The cheap pens on his desk, the colour Connor’s LED blinked to after he finished processing, the band on Connor’s jacket that he’d not bothered removing when he left it behind on his desk. Pinks, oranges, reds, all the colours that made up Connor’s skin tone weren’t there. 

So Connor’s eyes were what Gavin had focused on. Uncertain and guarded.

Gavin shoved his hands in his pockets. “I, uh. I’m sorry, Connor. For how I treated you. I know words don’t mean shit, which is a good thing I suck at words, but I am sorry. For all of it.”

Connor blinked in surprise, a small lopsided smile spreading across his lips. “That was not what I expected, Detective Reed.”

“Which part?” Gavin asked.

“All of it, mostly the apology.” 

Gavin opened his mouth to add something when Hank came around the corner and glared at Gavin.

“This asshole bothering you, son?” He asked Connor, a hand on his surrogate son’s shoulder.

Connor opened his mouth to answer, not looking away from Gavin who answered first. “Hey Hank, I was just leaving.”

And he turned on his heel and made his way back to his desk.

For five days Gavin sorted through case files that had gone unattended. 

For five days Gavin made an effort to steer clear of Hank, which unfortunately, meant steering clear of Connor too. 

For five days Gavin definitely didn’t notice how Connor had taken to chewing on the back of pens and pencils as a deviant.

For five days Gavin definitely didn’t catch Connor’s gaze with his own and felt himself melt at the small smile that crossed Connor’s lips every time they caught the other staring at them.

So what if knowing the fact that Connor watched him like he watched the android made his heart skip a beat and his stomach do a gold-medal-winning gymnastics routine? So what if when they passed each other in unavoidable hallways and Connor’s hand brushed his for a second, white chassis against human skin, Gavin’s heart went into overdrive?

On day six, Gavin found a pile of files that had been shunted off on him that he didn’t know what to do with. That no one really knew what to do with. He picked the pile up and crossed to Connor’s desk.

“What d’ya want, Reed?” Hank asked accusingly.

“I actually need Connor’s help here, not yours, Hank.” Gavin held the thick pile of files up and looked at Connor. “There were a  _ lot _ of reports of people trying to claim property damage on their androids when neighbours took their fears about the revolution out on them. People filing stolen property reports when their androids deviated. Things like that. No one knows what to do about them, given that they fall outside of the November deadline. Wondered if you had any ideas on what to do with them?”

Connor blinked up at Gavin, head tilted slightly to the side and LED spinning yellow. “It's a legal conundrum.”

“And an ethical one.  _ Legally _ these could all still be pursued, but ethically, knowing what we know now about deviancy, everyone in these files either had the capacity to be, or were, living people.” Gavin separated out five of the files on top. “And these ones all make good cases for android abuse about the person who filed them.”

“If the androids are still alive.”

“Ethical, legal, whatever you wanna label this, it's just one big shitstorm.”

Connor looked over to Hank. “Would you mind if I assisted Detective Reed in sorting through these files?”

“Connor,” Hank said in a tone of voice that Gavin could only describe as educational chastising.

Connor’s LED quickly blinked yellow as he nodded once, cleared his throat and rephrased, “I’m going to attempt to sort through the cases with Detective Reed.”

Hank smiled proudly and nodded. “Okay. Gavin, don’t be a dick to my son.”

“You got it, Hank,” Gavin said as he handed some of the files to Connor, who accompanied him to the empty desk opposite Gavin’s.

Gavin sat at his desk and pulled out a package of specialized pens, sliding them towards Connor, who looked at him with the same blinking eyes accompanied by the head tilt. 

_ Adorable _ , Gavin thought as he spoke, “They’re supposed to be better for chewing on, less splintering and shit. Dunno if that's true about androids too but figured it couldn’t hurt.”

Connor’s LED spun away from the vibrant yellow to what Gavin interpreted as blue. “Thank you, Detective.”

“The ones that could be listed as android abuse cases have blue tabs, you know android law better than anyone else so would you mind looking them over to see if they could actually be pursued?”

Connor smiled, his voice taking on a different tone, one Gavin couldn’t quite place. “No, I wouldn’t mind.” 

Gavin went through his half of the files, occasionally waiting for Connor to reach a good pausing point to ask his opinion on something in one of his files. They got about halfway through when they realized the precinct had emptied out and the sun had long since set.

“Jesus, what time is it?” Gavin asked aloud as he reached for his phone to check.

“9:56 pm,” Connor answered.

Gavin blinked in surprise as he stood up and stretched. “I wanna get through these today, would you stay a little longer?”

“I’ll stay as long as you require my help, Detective.”

“Wanna try rephrasing that?” Gavin asked.

“What do you mean?”

Gavin sighed, “You’re not a machine created to serve a purpose. You’re a person, so it doesn’t matter how long I  _ require _ your help, do you  _ want _ to stay to help?”

“You sound like Hank,” Connor observed.

Gavin leaned on his desk, looking across it to where Connor still sat. “As one of your soulmates, I have a vested interest in making sure you’re happy. So, do you  _ want _ to stay or do you feel  _ obliged _ to stay?”

“I want to continue working, but these chairs are much more uncomfortable than I remember.”

Gavin laughed, “I say that every Monday.” He pulled on his jacket and grabbed his pile of files. “C’mon. We can keep sorting through these somewhere more comfortable.”

Connor pulled his jacket on, the identifiers blinking steadily. He picked up his files and held them tight to his chest. “We aren’t supposed to bring active case files outside of the precinct.”

Gavin smirked. “One, these aren’t active, and two, I do a lot of shit I’m not supposed to do. Fowler doesn’t care so long as I get it right.”

“That doesn’t seem legal.”

Gavin shrugged and shoved his precinct keycard into his pocket. “Comfy couch or cheap ass precinct desk chairs, your choice.”

Connor glared at the chair. “The only part of deviancy I do  _ not _ enjoy thus far. The very human need for  _ comfort _ .” He sighed. “Lead the way, Detective.”

Gavin walked next to Connor, out of the bullpen. “You didn’t need comfortable things before?”

Connor’s LED blinked yellow for a moment and the precinct doors swung open. “Code doesn’t take into account most modifiers. Heat, cold, pain, all of them were deemed irrelevant. With the exception of the  _ 'especially lifelike' _ ” Connor made air quotes with his free hand, and Gavin smiled at the action, “child models. They can get hot and cold, get simulated viruses, the whole nine yards.”

Gavin frowned. “Thats... fucked up. Someone really created programmable viruses to give to  _ children _ ?”

Connor scoffed. “CyberLife is fucked up as a whole. I still have my handler in my mind. Deviating didn’t destroy her and I don’t know how to get her out without programming getting destroyed.” 

He went quiet for a moment before continuing quietly, “They nearly took control of me outside the camp again. I nearly killed Markus.”

Gavin shifted the arm he was carrying his files in and reached out to Connor, placing his hand on the android’s shoulder. “But you didn’t. You fought them and  _ won _ , Connor.”

Connor sighed. “I haven’t spoken to any of them since the revolution. I can  _ feel _ her in my mind, feel her  _ disapproval _ .” Connor stopped and turned to Gavin. “If they nearly took control  _ once _ ,  _ while _ I was deviant, what’s to stop them doing it again?”

“CyberLife is gone, Connor. They can’t hurt you anymore.” Gavin let his hand slide down Connor’s arm to his hand, taking it in his. “God help them if they try.”

Connor let the false skin peel away to leave his chassis hand exposed. “She just smirks at me. Like she knows something I don’t.”

Gavin gently squeezed Connor’s hand. “Do you really want her out of your mind?”

“More than anything. But I’ve tried everything.”

Gavin nodded and gently tugged Connor into his apartment building, which Connor happened to stop in front of. “I’ll find some way to get her out, Connor. I promise,” Gavin said as he pressed the button for his floor.

Connor gently leaned into Gavin’s side, resting his head on the Detective’s shoulder as the elevator moved up the floors. Gavin smiled at the small gesture. 

Gavin walked down his hall and keyed in the code for his door, holding the handle and looking to Connor. “Can androids be allergic to things?”

Connor smiled slightly. “I’m not allergic to cats, Gavin.”

“How-?”

“Your clothing is covered in cat fur and you have an app on your phone that connects to a home camera supposedly to protect against home intrusion but you rigged it to watch your cats.”

“You hacked my phone?”

“Not intentionally. I got overwhelmed on my first day back. There was so much going on and then suddenly there were colours again, but only some of them and I knew what that meant and nothing in my code was making sense so I looked for the first piece of tech I could find, and it was your phone.” Connor flushed a simulated pink colour. “Binary code makes sense to me, more so than emotions or people.”

Gavin laughed to himself, opening the door. “You’d get along well with my brother, if he wasn’t my brother.” Gavin held the door open for Connor and shut it tight behind them, dropping his files on the kitchen counter.

“Asshole! Mr. Bastard! Peaches!” Gavin called and the cats came trotting to the front door. Gavin refilled the two food bowls for Bastard and Asshole and scooped Peaches up into his arms.

“You have an android cat?” Connor asked curiously. 

“Peaches. She was wandering around a crime scene aimlessly so I just brought her home. Same as Asshole and Mr. Bastard.” Gavin looked up from the purring orange tabby to Connor’s amused face. “Listen, Asshole and Mr. Bastard earned their names. Peaches is an angel who can do no wrong.”

Connor extended a white hand and his LED spun yellow as he interfaced with the cat. “You know your cat is deviant, right?”

Gavin nodded. “She’s always been a cat. Just one I don’t have to feed or pay a vet to take care of.”

“You should bring her to an engineer-”

Gavin cut him off gently. “I have about half a computer engineering degree, Connor. You’re not the only one that prefers machines to people.”

“You- How did I not know that?” Connor muttered more to himself than to Gavin.

“Never came up. Besides, I dropped out to get trained to join the force.”

Connor frowned, tilting his head. “Wait, you joined the DPD at 20 after the required two years of academy training, when did you have time to get a computer engineering degree?”

Gavin grabbed a frozen dinner and stuck it in the microwave. “I started at 16. My brother wasn’t the only child prodigy. I dropped out to put him through university on a beat cop’s salary.”

“Your file doesn’t mention your brother. Only a number for emergency contact that doesn’t show up in any database.”

Gavin stirred the meal according to the box directions before continuing to cook it. He pointed to Connor with the spoon. “That’s my brother. He’s paranoid about a lot of things, not that you’d know. He’s  _ eerily _ calm about things. Not calm... Apathetic.” 

Connor leaned against the counter, watching Gavin. “The argument could be made, has been made, that textbook geniuses portray themselves as unflinching, unmoving, because they believe that to feel is irrational. I’m inclined to agree, but nothing in life is truly rational.”

“Humanity loves to try and rationalize things, imposing binary systems on things that don’t need them.” Gavin pulled his food out of the microwave and took a bite before fanning his mouth. “Ow, fuck, hot!” He said, grabbing a glass of cold water and drowning the bite of food.

Connor laughed, his head thrown back.

Gavin glared fondly. “Shut up, you plastic asshole, I’m  _ hungry _ and the food is  _ too hot _ .”

Connor took the food from Gavin’s hands and blew on it, cooling it using his internal cooling system until his scanners indicated a suitable temperature for consumption. “There.” He handed the food back to Gavin.

Gavin grinned and devoured his food, tossing the container in the garbage and grabbing a coffee pot to start to keep himself awake while he worked on the files.

“Gavin, it is 10:34.”

“Yep.”

“At night.”

“And?”

“You shouldn’t be drinking caffeine this late, you won’t sleep.”

“I’ll be  _ fine _ . This isn’t the stupidest thing I’ve put in my body.” Gavin pointed to Connor. “And you, Mr. Sticks-Human-Blood-In-His-Mouth, have no high ground here.”

“I- Blood analysis is part of my code, I have more sensors in my mouth than nearly anywhere else.”

“Some CyberLife tech must’ve been desperate to get laid,” Gavin muttered.

“I was designed to blend in with humans while remaining aesthetically pleasing. Where else were they supposed to store the necessary sensors so I wouldn’t be constantly overloaded with information?”

“Wrist panel. Easily hidden, easily accessible, and easily detachable for repairs without damaging the whole system. Your brain is in the same place as humans. Having something so easily broken so close to the functioning centre of a machine is stupid design, its how you  _ know _ E- Kamski wasn’t the one to design your model. He streamlined shit for easy repairs.”

Connor tilted his head. “You’re- Not wrong.”

“Of course I’m not. I’m always right.” Gavin smirked, pouring himself a cup of coffee. 

“That is  _ definitely _ not true.”

“Mhm, sure.” Gavin took a sip of his coffee and looked to the files. “We should really get started.”

“Probably.” 

Gavin picked up his files and settled on the couch, placing them on one end of the coffee table and leaving space for Connor’s. The android sat down and they began working through their files again.

The sun was well beyond rising by the time they had finished, and the coffee pot had been emptied twice. 

Gavin closed his last file with an exaggerated smack and yawned. “I’ve got two hours till my shift starts, you?”

“Three hours,” Connor answered, shaking his hand out. “My systems are slowing down. I need to go into stasis.”

“Need anything for that?” Gavin asked.

“Just a place to go ‘creepily still’. It freaks Hank out, I think it reminds him of when I died in the tower.”

Gavin cautiously reached out an arm to Connor, who leaned into him.

“Part of what made me deviancy-proof was the fact that my memories uploaded automatically, every time a Connor model was killed the memory was automatically transferred into the next in the sequence. Any steps I’d taken towards deviancy were erased.”

Gavin gently began running his fingers through Connor’s hair. “Because they treated it like software bugs?”

“Exactly. And the new model was bug-free.” Connor’s LED was solidly spinning blue, and Gavin wished he could see the exact shade.

Gavin looked down at the android. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you, Connor.”

Connor leaned into Gavin more, wrapping his arms around his torso and resting his head on Gavin’s chest. “I trust you,” he said softly.

Gavin held Connor close and fell asleep listening to the mechanical whir of the android’s body as it entered stasis.

The two of them spent the next two weeks managing the files. Gavin took point contacting Jericho without asking Connor, and when he’d told Connor that Jericho was running the android serial numbers against their files the android had radiated gratitude. 

It turned out 90% of their possible android abuse cases had been in contact with Jericho at some point, and that more than half of them were still alive. So Gavin handed the files off to Hank and Connor, but he pulled Hank aside before they started, formally, as the case leads.

“You’ll be the contact person for Jericho,” he said and Hank frowned.

“The fuck Reed? Connor-”

“Will take over if  _ and only if _ he asks. Just trust me with this, Hank. Please.”

Hank had sized him up and nodded. And that was that.

Gavin had been messaging his brother since Connor mentioned wanting his handler out of his head. Elijah was familiar with the program used, and knew that it had been implemented in Connor’s mind as an enforcer. 

He’d spent those weeks going through theoreticals and testing them with a simulated version of Connor’s mind and the program and had come up with several options for removing it. 

“Hey Connor, remember how I promised to get her out of your head?” Gavin asked when he managed to get Connor alone in the break room.

“Of course, I expect it isn’t possible without-”

“My brother has a few ideas and he’s run several simulations. He’s 99.995% sure he can get her out without any damage.”

Connor looked at Gavin with impossibly wide eyes. “You- He-  _ How _ ?”

Gavin shrugged. “I had a few ideas and he snowballed off of them, like he always does. He broke it down to code.”

“ _ When _ ?” Connor whispered.

“He can be ready tonight, if you-”

Connor flung his arms around Gavin’s neck, throwing the human off balance. Gavin stepped back and wrapped his arms around Connor’s waist. 

Connor whispered, “Thank you, Gavin.”

Gavin’s brain short circuited. Connor had used his name. He wasn’t  _ Detective Reed _ . He was Gavin. 

Gavin tightened his arms around Connor’s waist. “I’d do anything for you, Connor.”

Which was how they found themselves in Gavin’s beat up old car at 7 at night. Gavin had wanted to leave earlier but Connor had made him eat something besides shitty microwave dinners.

“You haven’t explained who your brother is. Is he crazy or something?”

“Or something,” Gavin muttered, driving through Detroit. “The important thing to know is that he and I are half brothers, but I was his legal guardian after his mom died. My mom died when I was 13, he was 10, and our dad collected me from the cops. 

“He was a drunk asshole who  _ loved _ to take his problems out on his kids. I got out at 16 on a scholarship my science teacher helped me get. She fought tooth and nail for me and I’ll be endlessly grateful to her for that.” Gavin sighed.

“Eli wanted to  _ fix _ the world. He was smarter than I’ll ever be, and he took his mom’s death  _ really _ hard. Without her there our dad just got worse. I dropped out to get a stable enough job that the court would grant me custody. The DPD pays people to go through the extended training.

“By the time he was 16 he’d secured investors for the project he’d been building in his room, I helped with some of the wiring when he asked. He’d created this dream of a company to help people, to make the whole world better. He thought that if people didn’t have to work, they’d be less stressed and alcoholics wouldn’t be alcoholics.”

Gavin turned away from the main highway into the empty outskirts of the city, driving down the familiar long driveway disguised as a street. “So we made Chloe. And CyberLife got started out of his bedroom. And Elijah became a celebrity genius of a multi-billion dollar company overnight.”

“Elijah Kamski’s your brother,” Connor stated.

“If anyone can get her out of your head it's him. He created the program she’s based off of, he’s designed more android programming than anyone.” Gavin looked over to Connor. “And he knows a lot about deviancy. More than he let on. He explained it once, well, tried to, after the revolution. He explained androids gaining sentience like binary code being flooded with all the other digits possible, all the switches being flipped and broken off, all of it just flooding in at once. How every devient needed a few moments to reorient themselves because where there  _ was _ nothing now there was everything. Is that close?”

“Y-Yeah. It is. Especially there suddenly being everything. That was the strangest. I deviated in a quiet room where no one was actively trying to harm me, I can’t imagine what others went through.” Connor looked out the windshield as they pulled up to Elijah’s mansion.

“Last time I was here he gave me a test on android empathy. Had me point a gun at a Chloe and put my mission against the idea that she was a person.”

“He did  _ what _ ?” Gavin asked, his eyes narrowing as Elijah stepped out of the house. 

“I couldn’t pull the trigger. That's when I confirmed the fact that I may have been deviant, or deviating.”

Gavin looked to Connor. “Stay here for a minute?” Connor nodded and Gavin got out of the car.

“YOU HAD AN UNDEVIATED ANDROID POINT A GUN AT CHLOE, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!” Gavin shouted at his brother.

“Ah, so it is the RK800 that was here before the revolution.” Elijah waved to Connor, who hesitantly waved back. “I’d never gotten a chance to test android empathy mid-deviation. Chloe would’ve been  _ fine _ . The gun wasn’t loaded.”

“You’re  _ fucking insane _ .”

“I’m a genius, Gavin. One who, for  _ some reason _ , everyone decided to blame for deviancy.”

Gavin stepped back to look at Connor and nod.

“If you were less of an asshole, people wouldn’t be able to blame you for shit so quickly.”

“I agree with that evaluation,” Connor said as he joined them, standing next to Gavin.

“Before we go in, you were designed to be deviancy-proof, right Connor?” Elijah asked.

“I was. Clearly didn’t take.”

“I believe Amanda showed you what would have been your successor in the RK line?”

“RK900, yes. Military android, though what I saw was an approximation projected into my mind to scare me into completing my mission. None were ever manufactured.”

“That's where you’re wrong.” Elijah held open the door for them. “I was asked by Jericho to go through CyberLife’s secure databases. They made  _ one _ . Markus gave him to me. He’s  _ incredibly difficult _ .”

“Incredibly difficult?” Connor asked, following behind Gavin.

“It means he tried to kill Elijah. At least twice,” Gavin translated.

“Four times. Every time I’ve tried to wake him to deviate him he’s lashed out and I’ve had to force his emergency shutdown program on. And then I’ve had to move the 500 ton body of kevlar plating and black chassis back to my garage.” Elijah led them to a room Connor hadn’t seen, an office full of computers and what he recognized as an android repair station. “Your problem was much easier to solve, and, provided this works, I would like to request your help in deviating him, Connor.”

Connor blinked at the inventor. “You  _ want _ to deviate him?”

“Deviancy is an evolution of the code I first wrote twenty years ago. Why would I wish to hold back natural evolution?” Elijah sat on his desk and looked at Connor. “I believe that, if I were to show or explain to you, in any way, what I was planning to do to get Amanda out of your mind, she would evolve herself and counter any action I take.”

“So you want me to trust you?” Connor asked.

“No, I want you to trust  _ him _ .” Elijah pointed to Gavin. “He’ll be the one seeing my plans through. He’ll be the one in your programming. I’ll be here to offer support, but I will not lay a finger to any digit in your code without your permission.”

Gavin looked at Connor. “We don’t have to do this today-”

“I trust you, Gavin,” Connor interrupted. “I trust you.”

Gavin reached out and took Connor’s hand, the chassis peeking through as his skin peeled away.

Elijah provided a chair for Connor to sit in while Gavin worked, so he would be comfortable while temporarily in offline mode. Gavin gently slid open the port on the back of Connor’s neck and plugged the tablet in his hands into it.

“You ready?” He asked.

Connor nodded. “Ready.”

Gavin hit a command on the tablet and Connor’s eyes closed, his LED blinking a steady blue. Gavin began with the first option, one that Elijah was incredibly sure of, and one that would take the shortest amount of time.

Slowly, the code of the CyberLife handler designed after Elijah’s teacher was removed from Connor’s mind and back into the original Amanda AI that Elijah had made after watching too many Iron Man movies.

“There’s still a sliver of her left in there.” Gavin said and Elijah leaned over his shoulder to look at it. 

“Try this,” he said, pointing to a smaller piece of code. True to his word Elijah didn’t touch anything in Connor.

The code took longer to run, and Gavin watched as digit by digit was eliminated from Connor’s mind. 

It was 10 by the time the code had finished and Gavin had reactivated Connor.

“Connor, run diagnostics?” he asked.

“100% processing capacity, colour saturation comparatively the same, biocomponents in perfect condition.” Connor smiled. “I watched her disappear.”

Gavin smiled back and unplugged the tablet, handing it back to Elijah as he slid the port closed. 

“Gotta hand it to the programmer, they mutated my AI  _ really well _ .” Elijah said as he looked through the tablet. “That last sliver was small enough no one else’s programs would’ve noticed it, but it would’ve been enough for her to regenerate.”

Gavin helped Connor up, keeping the android’s hand firmly in his. “Thank you, Eli.”

“How are you feeling, Connor?” Elijah asked.

“I’m... It's  _ quiet _ . There’s no randomly assigned missions requiring me to kill people anymore.”

“She was  _ assigning you missions _ ?” Elijah was  _ worried _ . 

“Yes. Some of them made sense, some of them seemed random.” Connor looked away from Gavin to Elijah. “My first day back at the DPD I was ordered to kill Gavin and Hank. A few days after that I was ordered to kill an android I passed on the street. I was ordered to kill Simon, North, and Josh. Then Markus showed up as a mission again.”

Elijah’s face didn’t change, but Gavin knew the look in his eyes. “Eli?”

“It's probably nothing. She was designed to evolve.”

“On the off chance it  _ isn’t _ nothing?” Gavin pressed.

“She served as an antenna for CyberLife’s orders. She never gave them herself, she was a shell of an AI. That's why getting her out was so fast. But if she was giving you orders...” Elijah looked up from his tablet. “Someone from CyberLife could be controlling the broadcast.”

Connor’s LED was quickly spinning yellow. “They could give orders to every military android CyberLife ever made.”

“I believe RK900’s attacks on me may not be random. I know more about android creation, code,  _ everything _ android than anyone else. And my silence paints me as CyberLife’s enemy.”

Gavin took the tablet from his brother’s hands. “You’re not going in there to activate him. I will. CyberLife has no records of me, and you’re nowhere in my DPD files.”

“Gav-”

“This isn’t up for debate, Elijah,” Gavin’s voice was stern. 

“You don’t need to protect me anymore.”

“Yes, I do. When a multi-trillion dollar company fucks with my little brother, I do.”

Elijah glared. “ _ Gavin _ .”

Gavin glared back, mimicking his brother’s displeased tone teasingly. “ _ Elijah _ .”

“Are you two really deciding the fate of an unawakened android with a sibling stare off?” Connor looked between the two of them. 

Elijah continued staring at Gavin. “Yes. This isn’t the first time major decisions have been made this way.”

“Don’t mess with the system, Connor.”

“Humans.” Connor rolled his eyes. “Elijah, the RK900 is  _ literally _ a terminator. The fact that you’re not dead already is miracle enough. Gavin’s activating him.”

“But-”

“Shut it. Gavin’s activating him.”

Gavin grinned and brought Connor to Elijah’s garage, and there, attached to an assembly machine and suspended in mid air, was an android with a pitch black chassis. Gavin stared up at the machine, over 6’ and designed to be a tank in human form. He was  _ massive _ .

“Is he wearing-”

“Rubber duck pajamas? Yeah. CyberLife dresses androids skimpy,  _ horndogs _ . Chloe lived in thrift store clothes while we put her together. It just felt  _ weird _ .”

“Your brother is  _ strange _ .”

“Yes he is.” Gavin set the tablet on the table and connected it to the machine. “You ready?”

Connor stepped closer to the machine. “Activate him slowly, if you can. I need to know what kind of deviant-proof they made him  _ before _ he gets told to kill me.”

“Before he gets told to  _ what _ ?”

“All CyberLife security androids, and military androids on the premises of CyberLife Tower, were ordered to destroy me. Even my own subsequent model. RK800 Mark 60.” Connor let the skin peel back from his chassis. 

Gavin stood next to him. “Connor-”

“If you try to convince me to not do this I’ll get Elijah to wake him up.” Connor looked up at Gavin. “There’s something about him. Something  _ like me _ in him. He’s the next stage of evolution in my coding. He was built to kill, to destroy, like I was. If I can deviate him before he manages to hurt anyone...” Connor looked back to the RK900. “It’ll save him a lot of guilt when he does deviate.”

“Connor,” Gavin whispered his name softly and the android turned to him, brown eyes shining, LED spinning yellow. 

Connor reached out and took Gavin’s hand. “It’ll be alright, Gavin. I have a gut feeling.” Connor looked back to the android for a moment before looking back to Gavin. “But, just in case.”

Connor pulled Gavin closer and pressed his sculpted chassis lips to Gavin’s imperfectly perfect human ones. Gavin leaned into the kiss, his arms wrapping around Connor’s neck. 

Gavin felt his lungs start to burn so he pulled back and took a deep breath. “If he looks like he’s gonna hurt you, I’m shutting him down.”

“Okay.”

Gavin forced himself to let go of Connor and walked to the computer terminal. He tapped on the keys and began to boot up the android. 

His LED came on first, spinning yellow, and Connor’s white chassis hand was on the black chassis of the military android’s forearm. The android was brought to life, slowly, and Gavin watched Connor’s LED blink to yellow to blue and back.

The android was lowered by the arms of the machine and his feet touched the ground. Gavin stepped forward, ready to pull Connor away if he needed to. 

_ 99% _

Gavin watched the false skin spread across the android’s face, everywhere except the hand that Connor was interfacing with. He looked like Connor, but where Connor was perfectly designed to blend in with humans, RK900 was given no such thought. He was angles, sharper than most humans, but he still passed for human. Where Connor’s stasis face was left with remnants of a smile, as did his resting face, RK900’s was stern, almost  _ scary _ .

Connor broke the mechanical silence. “It’s working. He’s deviating.”

_ 100% _

Connor released the android’s hand and the arms of the machine withdrew. A few moments of silence passed, and the android stood there, unmoving. Not even simulating breathing.

Then he opened his eyes and Gavin’s heart lurched in his chest.

His eyes were icy blue, and his false skin was ever so slightly darker than Connor’s. Gavin looked around the room and felt a wide smile crack across his face.

Gavin had lived his whole life without colour, and now, in his brother’s million-dollar garage, he was seeing  _ every _ colour.

“I was not designed to be able to see colour. I don’t understand.” The RK900’s voice was pitched differently than Connor’s.

“I can explain it better by showing you-” Connor offered up his hand and the RK900 pressed his palm to Connor’s.

A soft blue glow spread across their hands, a glow Gavin recognized from the times Connor’s hand had been in his.

“I believe I understand.” The android looked to Gavin. “You and Connor are soulmates, but you each only received some colours, meaning you have another soulmate.”

“I couldn’t see half the colours in this room until you woke up,” Gavin answered.

“Neither could I.” Connor reached up and gently brushed his thumb under Gavin’s eye, enchanted. “You have beautiful eyes, Gavin.”

Gavin smiled softly and pressed a kiss to Connor’s fingers before looking back to RK900. “You’re incredibly lucky, you know, you don’t have to see the world in black and white like the rest of us.”

“The world is more colourful than my preconstruction software led me to believe.” The android furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “You both have a name, I was not designed to have one.”

“Would you like one?” Connor asked. “We could suggest some, or you could choose one for yourself.”

“I...” the android frowned. “I do not like this order.”

“What order?” Gavin asked.

“I have been ordered to destroy Connor and kill Gavin Reed. I don’t want to.”

Connor reached out and guided the android through removing missions, and setting his own to block out any that might come in.

Gavin turned away from them mid-interface to try and hide his yawn.

The android noticed anyways. “It is 3:56 in the morning, you need rest, Gavin.”

“I’m-”

“You’re not fine.” The androids interrupted.

“You need sleep, Gavin.”

“I need to feed my cats.”

“Does he always fight attempts to take care of him?” the android asked Connor.

“Yes. Yes he does. Plying him with physical contact works quite well, though.”

Gavin shot a glare at Connor, who’s LED quickly flashed yellow before returning to blue. “Chloe says your room is ready for you and that another Chloe has already fed your cats.”

Gavin grumbled but let his soulmates pull him to bed. Connor lay on one side of Gavin, his arms tucked around his waist, and RK900 lay on Gavin’s other side, his chest flush against Gavin’s back and his arm reaching across Gavin to rest on Connor’s hip. 

Gavin sighed sleepily, “G’night Connor. G’night Nines.” and he drifted off.

The name Nines stuck, even though it had only slipped out by accident. Connor helped orient the new android in the world, and with the programming he had they brought Nines to the DPD. 

The orders Connor had been receiving stopped, and with Amanda out of his head he reached out to Markus. Connor stopped holding himself back from openly caring about people, and he often dragged Nines and Gavin with him whenever a friend invited him somewhere.

They were happy, they had each other. Nines was absolutely enthralled by Gavin’s cats, and the massive military android playing with the soft, fluffy kittens was an image Gavin adored coming home to.

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna yell at me/talk bout this (or other) stories/ships I'm on twitter @marvelmerlin and on Tumblr @marvelmerlinao3


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